In typical usage of optical fibers, occasion arises frequently for field termination of fibers, i.e., connection thereof to one of several different types of termination devices, e.g., another fiber, or a lightgenerating electrical transducer such as a light-emitting diode (LED), or a transducer responsive to light energy to provide electrical output such as a photoelectric diode, etc.
As is evidenced by various presently available commercial products for this purpose, the task of field termination is labor-intensive, at the least. Considering plastic optical fibers, which comprise a core, a cladding about the core and an outer jacket, one is led by product instructions initially to remove the jacket, as by stripping, for a specified distance from an end of the fiber. Caution need be taken in the stripping operation, lest the cladding be disturbed. One is advised to pass light through the stripped fiber to confirm that no light spots are observed in the cladding, which would require discarding the stripped portion of the fiber and a repeat effort at jacket removal.
Following jacket stripping, the assembler is led into the end finishing phase. Here, the fiber is inserted retentively in a suitable housing and is thereafter cut to length by use of razor blade, hot knife, guillotine cutter or rotary inscriber apparatus. The termination end face of the fiber, now defined, is subjected to polishing. Finally, one reaches the mechanical assembly stage wherein the prepared fiber in such housing is placed in another compatible housing supporting a termination device for registering the fiber termination end face with the termination device.
The art has heretofore consistently addressed separately the phases of fiber preparation and termination, i.e., without bridging of activity in one phase into the other. Thus, patents exist in substantial number directed solely to apparatus for effecting registration of a prepared fiber with a termination device and in goodly number directed solely to cutting devices and fixtures for fiber preparation.